West Yorkshire Queer Stories - Review

First of all let me share a couple of photos of books! Doesn't everyone love a book haul? Then I'll get into this review.  

First of all these are the books I got for Christmas. The top three were from a swap I did run by Gwen and Janet, I've joined in with this swap a zillion times and always enjoy it. This year my swapper turned out to by my friend Sarah Beth, so I had fun choosing some books that I thought they would like and vice versa. Shy Radicals is totally me, I'm looking forward to this. My friend Stacey says What you are looking for is in the library is great, so I'm looking forward to that, too. The third one is a queer romance which isn't always my thing, but I'm willing to take Sarah Beth's word that it is good!  

Lee bought me We Fell Apart and Bog Queen because I asked for both of them. We Fell Apart is the third in this series and I can't wait to read it. I can't remember why I chose Bog Queen but it sounds great. Girls to the Front was from my Secret Santa in Lee's family, which turns out to be my sister in law Libby. She's also really into books and this sounds really up my street. 

Next is this pile of books which I got at the beginning of January from Waterstones. My friend Jac gave me a gift voucher so when my mum and I went to Meadowhall I went and browsed. I love Lucy Foley so picked that one up as I've been seeing reviews of it. I had seen someone rave about All Fours so I thought I would give that a go. This Val McDermid is non fiction so that'll be interesting, and the other two just looked interesting (and were on the buy one get one half price which is always good). 

I DO have a lot of books, yep. I love them. 

And now to my review. I've had this book absolutely forever. I'm from West Yorkshire so I was obviously intrigued by this. I think I backed it or something, like the crowdfunding? I really can't remember, but I've had it a while. And I finally got round to it! It's joyful to read. There was a whole project to capture the stories of tons of queer people living in the region. This book is colourful and pretty but also has some really deep stories in it, from elders who have lived through decades of queer history, to people newly out. I loved it, I'm giving it five out of five and I would recommend it if you need a bit of queer joy. 

Christmas Swaps and Book Haul

I love Christmas and one of the reasons why is the number of Secret Santas that I join in with. I really like putting parcels together for strangers or sometimes people I know, and hoping that they'll love what I've bought. I also love getting parcels, too, of course!

I joined in two specifically bookish Secret Santas, one organised by The Broke and the Bookish blog and one organised by Rachel. I joined in a Thrifty Gift Swap organised by my friend Janet, and a Stitching Santa swap organised by a craft blog. I got books and goodies galore for all these swaps!

Let's see...

This was the swap organise by Rachel. These books were on my wishlist and I'm really excited to read both of them :) I also really like hot chocolate and chocolate, and while I don't do face masks often I possibly should!

The was the Thrifty swap, and my friend Jane sent me these. The books are both second hand - the one on the left is one of those terrible 80s teen romances that I devoured when I was twelve, and the other looks really interesting, I'll definitely pick up both of these!

This was my Stitching gift, hence the handmade parts. The sender was in Germany and didn't know anyone else she could pass on English language books to, so sent them to me. I've never read Emma so I'll definitely be trying to read that. The other one looks like an easy enough read, the kind of thing that I would pass on to my mother in law after reading!

And here's the Broke and Bookish swap. I signed up to both send and receive "two books plus goodies" and WOW, was I ever spoilt! Look at all the amazing things Sharon sent me! You can't see too well in the picture, but the book next to the pencils is a Book Journal/Log. I've had one before but it got filled up, so I'm looking forward to using this. The book next to that is "Crocheted Scarves and Cowls" - I'm a keen crocheter and I always want to push myself so this will be great. Below that is a Christmas colouring journal, and then on the left are two books from my wishlist and a book about writing Young Adult fiction that I haven't yet read! The wishlist books are We Are All Made of Molecules which sounds SO GOOD, and Gypsies Stop tHere. I am so looking forward to these!

And finally here are the other books I got. My friend Laura bought me The Woman in Black - she lent it to me in 2016 and I loved it, so I'm happy to have this edition with other stories in too. Isn't it a gorgeous edition? My mum and stepdad bought me I'm Not With the Band because as you know I love books about music!

I did well, didn't I? What books did you get for Christmas?